No Power

[Tom and Patty]

Why does it always happen when I am traveling?
Patty plugged in an little heater in the bath sink area to warm it up before her shower. She smelled melting plastic.
Micro, light over the sink and the GFI plug at the bathroom are dead. Progressive ECM says we have both legs powered to the coach.
No lights on the inverter, and no breakers tripped. no charging of the batteries. Push buttons on the inverter are in and Patty tried to reset them also.
When I get home I'll look for burned wiring, but I'm thinking it might be the inverter. 😖


I'll be home later tonight. I'll take ideas on where to start, do I can start wrapping my head around it.

Thanking all as always😃

[Tom and Patty]

Current inverter/charger is the original Freedom 2000 watt, modified sine wave.
If it is the inverter rebuild or new, and which one.

[Triker56]

Do you have 120V where the inverter plugs into?

[EngineerMike]

sounds like GFCI at the plug at the bath sink has tripped, I believe kitchen junk runs thru (are downstream of) that plug. Have her "Reset" the GFCI by pushing in the little button.

[Tom and Patty]

Triker56, I have power at the incoming breaker. In fact when I switch the breaker off, I hear a switch open or close in the inverter charger.

EM, no power at the GFI. That is the first thing Patty checked.

Inverter smells, all wires going in and out are fine. No sign of heat. No lights on the inverter��

I believe I can jump the inverter to get power to the rest of the coach. I have a charger I just bought on the 6 volt batteries running a 10 amp charge. Batteries measured 12.56 after Patty was running the propane heater today before I put the charger on them.

[wa8yxm]

She smelled burning plastic:

Suspect 1: The GFCI unit (outlet assembly)

Suspect 2: A screw loose (Did you know you likely have a few screws loose, Read on for a description of where to find 'em)

When this house I drive was new.. I had major issues with the air conditioners, Sometimes one would work, sometimes the other, sometimes both, or neither, I DO NOT HAVE AN EMS so there is no reason (or logic) to which worked and which did not.

Finally i pulled the cover off the breaker box (main power distribution box) (By the way Finally happened fairly quickly) and found several screws loose, Like the ones that secure the wires to the breakers, and to the bus bars.

One of the air conditioner breakers took 2 1/2 turns before it started to snug up and even more before it tightened down.

#3 on the list is all other connections on that circuit,, But since the GFCI is usually the first device "Down line" of the breaker.. I doubt you will get this far.

GFCI's in RV's are standard items you can get at Lowes, Home Depot, ACO, ACE, or "Joe's Hardware" or "Sam's Electrical Supply" (Names are generic) Nothing at all special about them. Though SOME brands work better with inverters.

[JLMunsil]

It's not clear to me what's working and what isn't. Sounds like you are on shore power and the GFI is not working. Does anything else work in the coach? Pull the GFI plug and check for power to the wires in the back. If there's power there than the plug is bad. On that Inverter/charger there is a small fuse inside the box that will cause it not to work properly.

[Tom and Patty]

We are on shore power. And one side of the coach is working(the non inverter powered side)
There is power to the inverter, but no output power. The inverter has no indicator lights on like it usually does. Since there is no output the bath GFI has no power. The inverter smells, however I just opened the front where the input and output Romex attaches and all connections are tight and no sign there of heat.
I am going to splice the input and output so I can have power.

[EngineerMike]

Tom- the GFCI plug won't have power if it has tripped, and plugs downstream won't either. A short in an appliance plugged into that circuit likely would trip the GFCI first (before tripping a breaker as the GFCI trip threshold spec is much tighter). Still most likely problem if there is 120V anywhere else in the rig.

[JLMunsil]

Sounds like it could be the transfer switch inside the inverter. Did you try disconnecting the shore power to see if the inverter would work? Maybe the switch is stuck.

[Tom and Patty]

I turned the breaker off that supplied power to the inverter, which should do the same. As it is now, I will pull the inverter and drop it by Xantrex in Elkhart and have them diagnose it.

[Old Scout]

Wiring layouts vary from year to year but dont think mircowave is on a GFI-covered outlet--could be wrong. Anyway, sounds like inverter has failed and 120v inverter by-pass [the other side of your coach] is nolonger working, in addition to yr charger. Could be the internal fuse but am not familiar/never had that issue with the old combi. You can wire the 120v leads to/from the inverter together--still breaker protected--and use the external charger [10 amp charge will barely keep you afloat] until you get home. If you do this, it would be worth one more check to verify that you are getting 120v shore power thru the house breaker to the input side of the inverter. Not sure how hard the "internal" fues is to locate/replace. Good luck.....

[Tom and Patty]

Thanks all.

I bypassed the inverter/charger and now have electric back through out the coach.

Now to find Gumby to remove the unit. Then I'll take it to Elkhart and have it looked at.

[Dave Fernandez]

Hello Tom:

It sounds like you let the Magic Smoke escaped out of the inverter. You may have to have it rebuild or purchase a new one. That’s what I had to do when the Magic Smoke escaped from my inverter.

I have trying to purchase a bottle of Magic Smoke for years but nobody sells it.